Movie Review: Elizabethtown (2005)

A romantic drama-comedy exploring themes of loss, Elizabethtown is a sweet but uneven journey through the complexities of family ties and coping with failure.

In Oregon, Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom) is a superstar shoe designer at the Mercury sportswear company. When his latest design flops, eccentric owner Phil DeVoss (Alec Baldwin) faces a billion dollar loss, and Drew's girlfriend Ellen (Jessica Biel) distances herself from their relationship. Drew considers suicide, but his sister Heather (Judy Greer) calls with news their father Mitch has died suddenly while on a trip to his hometown of Elizabethtown, Kentucky.

On the near-empty overnight flight, Drew befriends perky flight attendant Claire Colburn (Kirsten Dunst). In Elizabethtown he meets his father's friends and relatives, and understands the depth of affection towards Mitch, although the Baylors never welcomed Drew's mother Hollie (Susan Sarandon). Over the coming few days Drew and Claire continue to see each, while Hollie causes waves by showing up for the memorial service.

Written, directed, and co-produced by Cameron Crowe, Elizabethtown is an uncoordinated but still engaging mishmash. Humour, drama, romance, culture shock, grief, a travelogue, and familial conflicts take turns setting the tone. The result is awkward, sometimes jarring, but always reasonably watchable despite an overstuffed, often whiny, soundtrack, although the inclusion of Lynyrd Skynyrd's Freebird makes up for a lot of the dross.

The film suffers most trying to define a narrative flow and logical transitions, and never really finds the magic formula. Segments exist in isolation almost as stand-alone ideas. A chunk of time is occupied in developing the romance between Drew and Claire, although their conversations border on obtuse. Frustratingly, Claire is confined to the prototypical perfect potential girlfriend who just happens to land in the protagonist's lap as an emotional saviour in his most desperate hour.

Then another long sequence gives the stage (literally) to Susan Sarandon as Hollie, trying in one night to make up for a lifetime of estrangement from Mitch's family. A final chapter steers (again, literally) into a road trip of southern landmarks. Drew grieving his career fiasco and the loss of his father are supposed to provide an arc, but the dramatic themes are only modestly refined.

The humour is derived from some typical familial quirks, including the uncles, aunts, cousins, and nephews Drew has to get to know in a hurry. Cousin Jesse (Paul Schneider), once in a Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute band, is now raising a very loud kid and is a particular source of laughs. At the hotel, Drew's room is on the same floor as a raucous wedding event, another venue for passable chuckles. 

A running joke is that Elizabethtown is difficult to find on the map. This hometown contains some charm, but is also easy to bypass.



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Movie Review: Stealth (2005)

A science fiction military thriller, Stealth throws wild technology at the screen with admirable if mindless panache.

In the near future, Lieutenants Ben Gannon (Josh Lucas), Kara Wade (Jessica Biel) and Henry Purcell (Jamie Foxx) form the elite US Navy airborne Talon strike force, tasked with covert anti-terrorism bombing missions. After successfully destroying enemy targets hidden in desert caves, Talon's commander Captain George Cummings (Sam Shepard) introduces the team's latest recruit: the top-secret Extreme Deep Invader (EDI), a Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) operated by artificial intelligence developed by Dr. Keith Orbit (Richard Roxburgh).

Gannon has reservations about EDI, but the artificial intelligence proves its worth in a mission to assassinate terrorist leaders. But a lightning strike impacts EDI's circuits, leading to erratic behaviour. Despite the risks Cummings insists on sending EDI back into combat, and this time the unmanned aircraft goes rogue over hostile Asian airspace, endangering the other three team members and threatening to cause multiple international incidents.

An unlikely mashup of Top Gun and 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stealth also predicts the expanded role of drone technology in modern warfare. Never pretending to be anything other than a wild ride packed with cheap thrills, the film deserves credit for decent special effects, a better-than-expected focus on the pilots, and even conjures up a nominal character arc for the artificial intelligence.

The script by W.D. Richter capitalizes on the available assets. Stealth is packed with imagery of the fictional F/A-37 Talon stealth bomber, and while plenty of the pilot-perspective computer generated flight action pushes into ridiculous territory, enough of the visuals are real enough to engage. And director Rob Cohen conjures a few moments of truly enjoyable spectacle, including a refueling mission gone wrong for Gannon, and an ejection, self-destruct and harrowing parachute drop for Wade.

And while the romance elements between Gannon and Wade are as clunky as expected in a milieu overrun by macho hardware and mumbo-jumbo software, Stealth conjures up a human-centred climax with plenty of on-the-ground action featuring a low-probability run-to-the-border and a high-odds search-and-rescue mission under enemy fire.

Cohen finds time to make his leads and locations as attractive as the sleek planes, a rest-and-recreation sojourn in Thailand providing a flimsy excuse for the stars to parade in bathing suits, not to mention providing a tourism boost for the Thai economy.

Stealth never threatens to be taken seriously, but delivers its entertainment payload on target.

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Movie Review: The Illusionist (2006)

A drama and romance set in the world of royalty, illusions and magic, The Illusionist looks grand but cannot conceal essential plot weaknesses.

The setting is Austria, late in the 19th century. As young adults Eduard and Sophie fell in love but were forcibly separated because he was the son of a lowly cabinet maker and she was from an upper class family. He grew up to be an illusionist using the name Eisenheim (Edward Norton) with a celebrated magic show in Vienna. One night Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell) attends the performance along with his fiancée, the grown-up Sophie (Jessica Biel). Also in attendance is Leopold's faithful Chief Inspector Walter Uhl (Paul Giamatti).

The chance reunion reignites the passion between Eduard and Sophie, but Leopold is possessive and will not tolerate Sophie leaving him. Meanwhile Walter perceives Eisenheim as a threat to the Crown Prince's prospects, and starts a campaign of intimidation to run Eduard out of town. Eisenheim will have to decide if he has what it takes to tangle with the might of the royal family and fight for his love.

Written and directed by Neil Burger, The Illusionist offers a visually rich aesthetic featuring staid late 19th century Vienna surroundings, with frequent outdoor sojourns to breathe the distinguished  air of a handsomely recreated stately European city. The visual splendor is accompanied by an opulent Phillip Glass music score. Paul Giamatti is another plus, his shifty performance as a Chief Inspector who is also the son of a butcher filled with one-foot-in-each-camp nuance.

But much like a magic show with more sizzle than skill, there is limited substance beneath the magnanimous hand movements. Fundamentally the premise of The Illusionist is deeply troubling, Eisenheim's actions ending at a place where the line between aggressor and victim is severely blurred, with Burger appearing oblivious to the substantial betrayal of sympathy.

Worse still is an attempt at a plot twist that is exceptionally obvious. Kicking off about halfway through the 110 minutes of running time, Eisenheim unfurls a deception that is supposed to encompass the film's audience, but is telegraphed in capital letters. Rather than build towards a surprise, the second half of the film becomes a boring countdown until the glaring trap snaps around Uhl and Leopard.

In the meantime, Eisenheim sits on the stage creating incredible magic of the bring-back-the-dead variety, with no explanation given because all his tricks are CGI-created, and CGI would have been difficult to describe in a 19th century Vienna context. A dour Edward Norton performance does not help.

The Illusionist attempts to conceal suspect substance with stylish subterfuge, but stumbles off the stage.

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Movie Review: Next (2007)

A science fiction action thriller, Next offers what could have been an intriguing proposition and proceeds to pulverize it into a predictable pisspot.

Cris Johnson (Nicolas Cage) is a second-rate Vegas magician performing under the name Frank Cadillac. Cris does have a clairvoyant gift that he prefers to keep secret: he can see two minutes into his own future. After tangling with the security apparatus of a Vegas casino, Cris is approached by FBI Special Agent Callie Ferris (Julianne Moore), who wants to ask for his help to find a stolen Russian nuclear device that has been smuggled into the US.

Cris refuses and goes on the run, but pauses to meet and team up with Liz Cooper (Jessica Biel), a woman he has seen in his visions and who allows him to see further than two minutes into the future. Together they make their way to Flagstaff, with the FBI and the terrorists in hot pursuit.

Directed by Lee Tamahori as an adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story, Next tries hard to be a straight-to-DVD bargain bin release, but is unfortunately prevented from finding its true destiny by too many stars in the cast looking for a quick payday. A reasonably glossy production cannot patch up a stinker of a plot that starts with a single idea and quickly disintegrates into a mundane thriller consisting entirely of people chasing people for about 96 minutes.

Next is most memorable for an atrocious ending, which will not be spoiled here, although it deserves to be. What the ending does achieve is almost conceal how horrible the rest of the film is. Next has generic terrorists who never get to explain their plot or their cause; the baddies are just convenient and interchangeable Europeans who want to detonate a nuclear device. Move along, no other explanation is necessary.

And the screenplay does not even attempt to reveal what else anyone is doing to prevent the attack. Agent Ferris provides regular reminders that about 8 million people are about to die, and yet the considerable resources of the FBI appear to be deployed for the single purpose of capturing a two-bit Las Vegas magician. To add further insults to any remaining intelligence, the terrorists decide that chasing and killing Cris Johnson is also worth risking their time and resources. What better way to proceed with a carefully planned terrorist attack than to intentionally be as close as possible to hordes of FBI agents.

Finally, the science fiction elements are made up and revised on the fly. This is a film that establishes a two minute rule about how far Cris can see into his future, a limit that is meticulously repeated by various characters for the benefit of slower audience members. Regardless, Next promptly breaks the premise without explanation upon introducing the Liz Cooper character. By the disastrous end of the film all bets are off and none of the rules seem to matter, Cris now capable of being in multiple places at one time.

Nicolas Cage goes through the motions, Julianne Moore carries an annoyed attitude throughout, and Jessica Biel never appears sure as to what her character is doing in the movie, a question that also stumped the filmmakers. Peter Falk pops up in one scene and cashes out. Next indeed, and quickly.

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Movie Review: Hitchcock (2012)

A peak inside the mind and private life of one of cinema's greatest ever directors, Hitchcock is a fictionalized account of the period leading up to his career's greatest triumph.

Alfred Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins) should be basking in the success of 1959's North By Northwest, but instead he is experiencing anxieties about his age, his weight, and finding his next project. Despite the objections of studio bosses, he decides to adapt the book Psycho by Robert Bloch, a horrific story of murder, mutilation and unburied corpses based on real-life murderer Ed Gein. With the studio refusing to fund what appears to be a salacious horror film, Hitchcock and his wife and frequent collaborator Alma (Helen Mirren) take the biggest risk of their lives by mortgaging their house to self-fund the production.

Alma starts to work on the script, while Hitchcock's loyal assistant Peggy (Toni Collette) leads a campaign to buy every copy of the book to increase the shock value of the film. Alma recommends Janet Leigh (Scarlett Johansson) for the lead, and Hitchcock is smitten with his latest blonde leading lady, much to Alma's disgust. Also cast are Vera Miles (Jessica Biel), who previously disappointed Hitchcock by placing her family first, and a tentative Anthony Perkins (James D'Arcy). The pressure on Hitchcock mounts and affects his health, especially once Alma starts to spend a lot of time with screenwriter Whitfield Cook (Danny Huston).

Directed by Sacha Gervasi, Hitchcock is compact and tightly focused on the turmoil that often accompanies the creative process. Running at just 98 minutes, the film packs in the ups and downs of the journey from idea to final film, and reveals plenty about the man by zooming in on a short pivotal period in his life.

Remarkably Hitchcock dissects Psycho without showing a single frame of the celebrated film. The boundary-bashing elements of the film are revealed through clashes with the Motion Picture Production Board, while a stellar highlight is achieved as Hitchcock conducts every frame of the shower scene, alone in the empty theatre lobby outside an early screening.

But this is a film as much about the man as the movie. Hitchcock hints strongly at the director's character weaknesses, including an inability to control his appetite. Perhaps related is a blatantly wandering eye, and a lust to dominate women manifested in a search for an idealized vision of a perfect blonde. In Alma Hitchcock has found and married his perfect life partner, but now looks past her and cannot help but flirt shamelessly with younger women while displaying obsessive and manipulative traits.

The film stops short of veering towards anything darker in Hitchcock's observed behaviour towards women. Gervasi instead chooses the more imaginative route, getting into Hitchcock's head for fantasy scenes of interaction with murderer Gein (Michael Wincott), and suggestions that the financial and artistic stresses triggered suppressed thoughts of violence towards the finally fed-up Alma. And her essential role in Hitchcock's success is a key theme of the film, Alma indeed emerging as the rational creative force balancing his arrogance and showmanship.

Anthony Hopkins grows into the role as the film progresses, capturing Hitchcock's well-known mannerisms. Mirren matches Hopkins as the less showy and more grounded Alma. Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Biel provide adequate support in smallish roles representing different dynamics between Hitchcock and his actresses.

The success of Psycho as a seminal cinematic achievement is now taken for granted. Hitchcock pulls back the shower curtain to reveal the self-doubt, determination and strife holding hands with genius.

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The Movies Of Jessica Biel

All movies starring Jessica Biel and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Stealth (2005)

Elizabethtown (2005)

The Illusionist (2006)

Next (2007)

Valentine's Day (2010)

New Year's Eve (2011)

Total Recall (2012)

Hitchcock (2012)

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The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: Total Recall (2012)

A remake of the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger film and based on the 1966 Philip K. Dick short story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale", the 2012 version of Total Recall is wholly unnecessary. Director Len Wiseman gets trapped into an endless succession of tiresome chases powered by computer generated imagery, resulting in byte-overload and a shamefully narrative-poor experience.

In a grim post-apocalyptic future, there are only two inhabitable territories on the globe. The United Federation of Britain comprises the former western Europe and holds the political power. The Colony (what used to be known as Australia) is where the poor and the labourers live. The two are connected by a high speed commuter shuttle system known as The Fall, which uses a tunnel drilled through the earth's core. Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell) lives in the Colony with his wife Lori (Kate Beckinsale) and works in the UFB. Unsatisfied with his life, Quaid suffers from nightmares where he is part of an anti-UFB resistance movement.

Quaid approaches the Rekall agency, which embeds fake memories for the enjoyment of those who cannot afford real escapist vacations. Upon choosing to create a memory where he is a dangerous double-agent, Quaid's real identity is triggered: he is indeed a revolutionary, and teams up with fellow-rebel Melina (Jessica Biel) to fight for the cause of resistance leader Matthias Lair (Bill Nighy), with the intention of toppling the evil UFB Chancellor Vilos Cohaagen (Bryan Cranston).

Farrell, Beckinsale (Mrs. Wiseman) and Biel do little other than look grim and chase each other through the storm of computer generated pixels. The script by Kurt Wimmer and Mark Bomback offers no wit or panache, with the characters taking a distant back seat to the CPUs. Wiseman, who's main claim to fame is the Underworld series, makes sure that the sets look great, but forgets to issue any commands to his actors beyond run, jump, grimace.

Total Recall quickly degenerates into a series of highly kinetic chase scenes, an impressive array of servers deployed to create virtual mazes for Quaid to race his way towards a jumbled objective. Pretty soon, the reasons for the running around are forgotten, and the brief pauses to move the story along or provide depth to the characters are treated with impatient disdain. The mindless action becomes an end unto itself, and all intellectual engagement is jettisoned into that tunnel through the earth's core.

The movie finally drives itself to depths of absurdity, the character of Lori effectively discarding her entire mission for the sake of justifying the ridiculous pursuit of Quaid with lethal force, and just when the script could not possibly become any more farcical, Chancellor Vilos personally leads an army of tin-pot robots intent on conquering The Colony by travelling with all the mechanized soldiers on the same shuttle system used by commuters. A politician leading an attacking army and using a glorified bus for transportation into battle? The 2012 version of Total Recall is just total imbecility.

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Movie Review: Valentine's Day (2010)

A collection of intermingled short stories so lightweight they are blown away by the February winds into instantly forgettable lands, despite the massive ensemble cast.

With too many loosely connected stories, too many characters, and hardly enough time dedicated to anything or anyone, Valentine's Day degenerates into a brisk but irrelevant game of "spot the star". Although almost every role is played by a recognizable face, director Garry Marshall fails miserably to inject soul into any of them.

The events take place during the course of a single Valentine's Day in Los Angeles, as lovers and wannabe lovers navigate their way through the day of supposed romance. The most developed relationships revolve around florist Ashton Kutcher proposing to girlfriend Jessica Alba, who first says yes then says no, while Kutcher's best friend and school teacher Jennifer Garner thinks she's in love with doctor Patrick Dempsey, who hasn't told her that he's actually married. One of Garner's students, a young boy, is using hard-earned dollars to send flowers to his mystery Valentine using Kutcher's florist services, but everything goes wrong with the delivery.

Receptionist Anne Hathaway is dating mailroom clerk Topher Grace while she also moonlights as a phone-sex operator. Hathaway works for sports agent Queen Latifa, who represents football quarterback Eric Dane, who is contemplating retirement with the help of his publicist Jessica Biel, who is maybe interested in television sports reporter Jaime Foxx, who is annoyed that his producer Kathy Bates has sent him to the street to capture inane on-camera opinions about Valentine's Day.

Meanwhile Julia Roberts is a soldier on a short leave, traveling on a plane heading for a rendezvous with a person only revealed in the final scene. During her long flight she befriends Bradley Cooper, also on his way to meet a lover that we will only meet late.

Unbelievably, there are more characters and more stories nipping in and out of the movie, including teenage lovers, long-married grandparents, and Taylor Swift, who appears from nowhere, for no good reason, and does nothing. It's impossible to keep up, or to care.

It's also difficult to fathom what the purpose of the exercise is, other than for every star to work for a couple of days in-between other projects, and cash a juicy cheque at the expense of bewildered moviegoers.

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